Bianliang, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, has four famous gardens: Qionglin Garden, Jinmingchi, Yichun Garden, and Yujin Garden, which are called "Four Gardens" at the time. The four gardens are all royal gardens, the scale is quite large, and each has its own special use, among which the Yujin Garden is the most distinctive.

Yujin Garden is located outside the south of the city of Bianliang, because there is a large area of wide and flat land in the garden, the Taizu period is the "school field" for reviewing the cavalry and archery of the army, and it is actually the royal "shooting garden". Since the first emperor, not only has the big shooting salute been practiced here, but also the Khitan envoys are often arranged to carry out "banquet shooting" activities.

Since the first emperor, every New Year, the emperor's "holy day" or the queen mother's birthday and other major festivals, when the envoys from various countries come to the Song Dynasty to congratulate, the emperor will give the Liao envoys in Yujin Garden to "feast", so far it has formed a practice.

The so-called banquet shooting is a kind of shooting activity between the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao State. This is also an informal and friendly exchange between the two countries.

This year's "banquet shooting" is different from previous years, because the official family not only issued an order to summon Liao envoys, but also summoned Western Xia to Yujin Garden to "give shooting". Perhaps it is because the Western Xia is becoming stronger and stronger, and it will soon be on the western territory, and now it is necessary to make friends with Lu as soon as possible.

On the third day of the first lunar month, the sky is clear, and the winter sun is just right, which is a good day for feasting.

The largest open space in Yujin Garden, hunting with flags, under the umbrella cover of Huangluo, Zhao Zhen, the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, sits in the middle, and the maid of the palace stands behind him. On the left hand side, a few meters away, there is Yelu Zongzheng, the king of Zhongshan County in the Liao State, and his younger brother Yelu Zongyun, and on the right, also a few meters away, there is Li Yuanhao, the prince of the Xia Kingdom.

In the back rows, there are the military generals of the Great Song Dynasty and the accompanying envoys and embassy escorts this time, interspersed with Liao envoys and Xia envoys. There is a separate one on the side of the back row, and this seat is still empty at this time, and I don't know whose seat it is.

Everyone is set up in front of the table, on the wine and delicacies, not far from the palace people still play music. Looking at the city hall in the garden in the distance, the hundred pavilions and the dense forests, it is like being in the painting, and I can't help but feel relaxed and happy. It makes people feel that this banquet is not like a competition, but it is quite a banquet.

Not far from the crowd there is a row of arrow targets in front of the left side, and fifty paces away, that is, in front of the right side of the crowd, there is a row of bow and arrow racks, where the person who shoots will stand.

I don't know when, the emperor's back row has been set up a single seat has sat a woman, this woman has bright eyes, noble temperament, wearing a rather neat Hu suit, lined with a tall figure, more and more curvy. The maid who followed behind her also had beautiful eyebrows, but her eyes were extremely cold. This outstanding master and servant attracted everyone's attention, especially Li Yuanhao, who couldn't help but look at the woman.

Zhao Zhen asked with a smile, "This is the princess of Huayi in this dynasty, my cousin, Prince Xia has seen it before?" ”

Li Yuanhao hurriedly turned sideways and said with a smile, "What the emperor said is very true, I was fortunate to meet Princess Huayi in Xiangguo Temple yesterday, and I had to be in a hurry at that time, and I was feeling sorry, I don't want to see it again today, it's really an honor." ”

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "Princess Huayi is quite curious about this banquet, so I asked her to come and watch it today." ”

At this time, a drum sounded, but it was the shooting that began.

At the beginning of the competition, as usual, the accompanying shooting envoys of the Great Song Dynasty competed with the envoys of Liao and Xia. The accompanying archery envoy of the Great Song Dynasty this time is the Taibao of the inspection school, and Wang Deyong, who signed the Privy Council, Wang Deyong is nearly fifty years old, looks strange, burly, and has faced against Yu Xia Guo many times before the battle, and his archery skills are exquisite.

However, the main envoy of the Liao State is an important minister of the Liao State, the envoy of the Southern Court of Xuanhui, and Xiao Congshun, the envoy of the Shuofang Festival, who is also a military general, and has superb archery. The envoy of the Xia State was Yeli Jingren, and the Yeli family was one of the eight clans of the party, and there were many famous military generals.

These three people are all from a lot of backgrounds, and they are all good shooters, which makes people look forward to it infinitely.

The rules of the three-person shooting competition are very simple, requiring three people to shoot arrows at the same time, and each person shoots ten arrows at the arrow target in front of him, and the one with the most hearts is the winner.

After three drums, the three of them released the arrows at the same time, although the speed was fast and slow, but it was also about the same, not long after, ten arrows were shot, and the guards took the arrow target shot by the three people to Zhao Zhen and the other three for verification.

Liao Zheng made Xiao Congshun and Western Xia Zheng make Yeli Jingren's ten arrows miss, and all of them shot at the target red heart.

Zhao Zhen smiled at a glance, "There are really many people in Liao and Xia who are good at shooting, and the two of them are superb in archery, which is admirable." ”

Looking at the arrow target used by Wang De, the ten arrows are all in the red heart, but these ten arrows are all the tips of the back arrows drilled into the tail of the front arrows to split them, and the ten arrows became dozens of arrows shot at the red heart, which is called "splitting arrows".

After everyone saw it, they all gasped, although these three people all shot the red heart of the arrow target, but the level was high.

Li Yuanhao and Yelu Zongzheng raised the wine glasses in front of them, saluted Zhao Zhen from afar, and said, "Lord Wang's 'splitting arrow' is so good that I will wait to bow down." ”

Subsequently, the Liao State and the Xia State competed with the Great Song Dynasty shooters, although they had their own victories and defeats, but they were not much different.

Originally, this banquet, the three kingdoms were at the same level, the banquet atmosphere was warm, and the curtain came to a perfect end, but Xia Guo, who participated in the banquet for the first time, was obviously not very satisfied with the result.

I saw Li Yuanhao say to Zhao Zhen, "Your Majesty, I have a reluctant request below, I don't know if it's okay?" ”

Zhao Zhen asked in surprise, "Does Prince Xia have any requests, but it doesn't hurt to say it." ”

Li Yuanhao smiled, "It's not a big deal, but I think it's more than shooting, standing in place and shooting the arrow target, it's quite boring, just imagine that the arrow target is a dead thing, no matter how beautiful and fancy the shooting is, I can't see the level of the archer." This is an allusion to the fact that the "splitting arrow" used by Wang De before is just a showcase, and it cannot represent the level of archery.

Zhao Zhen asked, "Then Prince Xia thinks how to compare archery to represent the level of archery?" ”

Li Yuanhao said, "If you pull out the feather arrows and wrap them in cloth, coat them with silver powder, and let the archers ride horses to shoot each other, each person is still ten arrows, subject to a quarter of an hour, when the time comes, the one with less silver powder on the body wins, and the opposite is defeat." And the person who competed couldn't be the one who had just shot, I don't know what the emperor thinks.? ”

When Zhao Zhen heard this, he frowned slightly, groaned for a while, and said, "Since Prince Xia suggested so, it is not easy for me to be the master." ”

As soon as the Yelu Zongzheng of the Liao State heard it, he knew that the Western Xia clearly wanted to target the Great Song Dynasty, and they didn't want to wade into this troubled water, so they hurriedly proposed not to participate.

Zhao Xian, who had been sitting in the back row watching the shooting, thought to herself at this time, this Li Yuanhao must have come prepared, and there must be someone who is good at riding and shooting, just waiting for this game. I'm afraid it's not just to test the cavalry and archery level of the Great Song Dynasty's forbidden army, but also to show off the strength of the Xia Kingdom's armed forces and military prowess.

Li Yuanhao laughed loudly, "The emperor is really refreshing, I won't be selective today, just let my personal guard go up and make two moves." Then he said to a young man of twenty-eight or nineteen years old beside him, "Sunuer, you can ride your own horse and go to get a lesson." ”

Li Yuanhao's pretended to be casual, so that Zhao Zhen could not send the famous generals of the Great Song Dynasty to come out to compete.

Zhao Xian thought to herself, "This Li Yuanhao is really cunning, Sunu'er's ability, when the Uighur princess assassinated Li Yuanhao that day, Zhao Yan had seen it, this person has superb martial arts, especially the level of bows and arrows is extremely powerful, but at this time, Li Yuanhao pretended to be an ordinary guard, it is really shameless." And although Zhao Yan is good at riding and shooting, but now she is dressed as a woman, but she can't go up and compare, and now she can only see how the official family copes. ”

After Zhao Zhen groaned slightly, he waved his hand to summon a person, and ordered that among the people in front of the palace who came today, find a person who is good at riding and shooting to come over and compete. This casualness is really quite casual, compared to Li Yuanhao's clearly premeditated, but pretending to be casual, it shows the demeanor of a great country.

Liao was originally a country with strong cavalry and archery, and there were countless good marksmen; In addition, the Western Xia is also a nomadic people, and they have always been martial arts and skilled in warfare, and skilled in bows and horses.

Although the Great Song Dynasty is the main inviter of the "banquet shooting", it has not won much in previous years, and the Western Xia targeted this game of shooting, if it wins, if it loses, it is not only related to the face of the Great Song Dynasty, but also makes the Liaoxia two countries and the subject countries feel that the Great Song Dynasty is weak in force, and the people of the Great Song Dynasty are extremely weak.

Zhao Zhen's words were passed down, and one of the honor guards broke out, took a few steps forward, and said loudly, "Your Majesty, the little one is willing to give it a try, and he will meet the general next to Prince Xia." ”

The word "general" made Li Yuanhao blush, he knew that Sunuer's true identity was really a general, but his reputation was not revealed.

Zhao Zhen looked towards the voice, and saw that the person who spoke was about twenty years old, with a well-proportioned figure and a very handsome appearance, but he didn't know who it was.